Technology & Instruction for UNEX

Adding audio files to your Moodle class can be a good way to increase the variety of course content for your students. Whether you record your own audio, download podcasts, or find audio from another source, it is easy to add the audio to your class. Moodle can play .mp3 and .wav audio files, so it is best to stick with those formats. Login and turn editing on Login to your class and then turn editing on. Method 1 - Add a file Locate the section of your class where the audio file will be added. Click Add an activity or resource . Add a File Resource Scroll down until you see the list of Resources , then click the radio button next to File . Click the Add button to get started. Fill in the File form Fill in the Name (1) and Description (2) fields with the appropriate information. If you want the Description to be visible to students on the class home page, click the box next to Display description on course page (3) . The next step will be to...

This lesson covers the steps involved in adding a link to a web resource to your Moodle class. In the language of Moodle, you will be adding a URL resource. In these examples, the link is added to the class home page. It is also possible to insert links in web pages or documents, but that is not covered here. Turn editing on Access your class and turn editing on. Locate the week or section where you want to add the link Click the Add an activity or resource menu in the section of the class where the link will be added. Scroll to the bottom of the list of activities and resources URL is the last item in the list. Choose URL Click the radio button next to URL and then click the Add button. Copy the link you want to add If you have not already copied the URL you are linking to, open it in a new window or tab and copy the URL from the...

A great video about the failure of various new technologies to have a significant impact on education was added to YouTube last week. It's only about 7 minutes long, but it makes some great points and is nicely edited.

In this lesson, we will see how to set up categories in the Moodle grade book and use the categories to generate a weighted final grade. In most cases, this is an easier method than creating a custom formula for the final grade. Access the Grade Book Once you have added the graded activities to your class, login and click on the Grades link in the Settings block. Grade book The grade book's default view, Grader report , will list each graded item, with one column for each item and one row for each student. We will be organizing the items into categories and adding a total number of points to each category based on a 100 point scale. For each category, we will use the average score, assuming that all items in the category carry equal weight towards the final grade. Locate the Grader report menu in the upper left. Change to Full View Click on the Grader report menu and choose Full view . Full view Full view displays the graded items ...

Textbooks can be incredibly expensive. The 20 Million Minds Foundation is doing something about it. Cover the Cost Contest -  The 20 Million Minds Foundation: With skyrocketing textbook costs creating a major barrier to higher education affordability, we want to give students a chance to share how this affects their lives. To do so, we're asking students to submit a 30 second video or 250 word essay describing how they cover the cost of textbooks. Three winners will receive a book scholarship worth $2500. http://bit.ly/coverthecost

Restricting access to course activities and resources isn't something I use in my own classes and I'm not a big fan of overdoing it with this feature, but there are times when it comes in handy. This lesson covers how to set up access restrictions for everything in one week in a Moodle class. Edit the Weekly Summary Turn editing on and click the edit icon under the dates for the week you wish to restrict. This gives you access to the weekly Summary. Set up the restrictions There are a number of options that can be set to restrict access. The simplest approach is to have the week become visible to students at a specific date and time. To do this, click the Enable button next to Allow access from , and choose a date and time. For many students, it may be more convenient if the material is available a few days before the week officially starts, so in this example, I have set it up so the week of August 20-26 will become visible on August 17th. You can a...

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're the 'Wrong' Professor , by Stacy Patton, describes the experience of Karen McArthur, who discovered that an online class she developed on art appreciation without additional compensation, had been given to two others who then taught using her materials, course design, etc. It is an interesting and disturbing story and one that I think will become even more common as online learning expands. The growing use of adjuncts and the commoditization of teaching and learning in higher education, along with the push to put more classes online and the ease with which one course can be copied into another one all contribute to the problem. I had the experience of teaching an online class developed by someone else only one time and I found it odd to use another person's materials and hear their voice on recordings in the class. It's obviously less work, but for me, it wasn't something I would want to do again. Almost all of our ins...